7 Steps to Setting Meaningful Goals

December 2012

As a PR and marketing professional you're probably familiar with both the excitement and, perhaps, even the anxiety of creating new goals for yourself and your organization. In the past, BurrellesLuce has written about using S.M.A.R.T goals to boost productivity, setting measurement goals aligned with company benchmarks, and how to commit to communications planning and achieve PR resolutions.

Now we are offering you 7 steps to help you achieve more meaningful and satisfying goals.

Define measurable goals.

"There is a big difference between goals and expectations," writes Shelley Martin a consultant at BioSync®. Martin defines a goal as "a process that is self initiated and self maintained in order to achieve a desired result." Expectations, however, are often dependent on the actions of others, and "are set up for disappointment." Defining measurable goals will enable you to use a baseline of all tactics and metrics throughout the year. Your personal expectations must be aligned to help you stay on track.

Practice self awareness.

People who are self aware know their value, understand their motivation, and are better able to define and reach their goals. Developing self awareness is something you can do on your own by observing how you interact with others and by challenging the beliefs you hold about yourself. (The key is to be honest and non-judgmental). For a more objective viewpoint, you may also find it helpful to get feedback from professional tests such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

Balance priorities.

Everything that contributes to organizational goals takes top priority; this includes tactics that support the overarching goal. Consider individual contributions and set the priority to eliminate distractions. Then work to eliminate the non-essentials.

Visualize achievement.

Studies show that people who actively visualize their goals and objectives are better able to achieve them. Scott White, a certified professional trainer and nutritionist located in Scottsdale, Arizona, offers these tips for mastering visualization techniques. He suggests "recalling an important goal you have already accomplished" and then transferring those positive feelings onto the goal you would like to manifest. He explains, "Adjusting your mental image of the current goal to mirror one you've already achieved makes your new goal seem easier and gives you the feeling that you've already achieved it."

Identify motivators.

Whether it is increasing business productivity or implementing a new health regimen, self-assurance, self-confidence, and self-efficacy can be powerful motivators, confirms MindTools, an online resource that helps senior executives, business owners and young professionals increase productivity and improve leadership skills. Motivation may be the result of a reward or from the satisfaction of gaining new abilities and sharing success. Understanding what motivates you helps you stay on track.

Leverage your best resources.

Assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (S.W.O.T.) will keep you focused on growth and allow you to uncover your best resources, your individual skills. This check-list from Dayjob.com can help you define your skills and gain perspective.

Evaluate and make adjustments.

Setting periodic goals gives you the stepping stones to see where you need to make adjustments and how to plan long term. Measuring your progress will help you determine your current status and give you insight into what steps you may need to take in the future - both short and long term - if you are to meet all objectives.

BottomLine: Setting goals, strategically and tactically, can be rewarding. In order to keep your focus and aspiration, analyze the small wins and setbacks as they come in order to stay the course and achieve long-term results. If one of your goals for the New Year is to better understand how your media coverage affects your company or client's bottom line, BurrellesLuce has you covered.

About BurrellesLuce

BurrellesLuce is the U.S. leader in media monitoring. Professionals in a wide range of industries rely on our comprehensive curated content from local and national print, online, broadcast, and social media sources. BurrellesLuce has a turnkey copyright compliance program that allows us to provide copyright-compliant, behind-the-paywall content not available to other services. BurrellesLuce combines grade-A content with easy-to-use software, allowing users to evaluate and analyze their media coverage and PR efforts. It's all integrated into our user-friendly interface, BurrellesLuce WorkFlow™.